November 20, 2003

I finally managed to get to the server and get pictures of the shoes I bought. The best part about the deal is that the “Original Price” is what it is still going for at every other store. They aren’t closeouts by any means, they’re just amazing deals.

So first up, my pride and joy the Steve Madden “Rascal Mesh”
I really like these shoes. Original price: $74.99, I got em for 37.99
Savings: $37

The second pair that was too good to pass up, the adidas “Superstar FTR”
This pair is interesting, not just cause I like the style, but cause they’re advertised as old school basketball shoes. From the description:
“First low-top basketball shoe to feature an all-leather upper and rubber shell toe. Introduced in 1969, approximately five years later, 75% of NBA players were wearing the new shell toe.”
Original Price: $79.99, Brian’s price: $24.99
Savings: $55

Also, Lauren got two pairs of shoes which I’m posting here, she can add commentary if she wants. They are both originally $39.99, selling for $11.99. Savings: $56 for both. They’re both Saucony brand.

After taking a quick look at my shoe…
…I knew this sale was what I had been waiting for.

I hurried to the website as fast as my mouse could click, but all I encountered was:Thank you for choosing our site! We apologize for the delay.Demand on the site is at an all time high and we are currently at the maximum number of users. Please try back later!

But I presevered. After a couple of page reloads, I was on the site and in the hunt for new footwear. I quickly found two pairs of shoes that I wanted to buy. Some green Steve Madden shoes that normally sold for $70 that were on sale for $37.99 and a pair of snappy adidas, normally $49.99 on sale for $24.99.

I sprang into action, entering my information as fast as the ever-slowing server would let me. Finally, after clicking “same address as billing address I was ready to place my order.” I sat back, relieved that I would finally have some new stylin digs at an affordable price, and clicked “Place Order.” And then…

Disaster.

The page never reloaded. No confirmation number. Nothing could convince the web page to tell me that my order had been placed and shoes were on their way. The server was slammed, just too many connections, there was nothing I could do. My heart was pounding, blood pressure rising.

My life was over.

Then, like a voice from the sky:

(23:57:16) Eugene:
the sale is not pulled it is still on.
Call 1-800 8255565 and give them the SKU #

However they are running low on stock.

(23:57:18) Eugene: call that in the morning

Was it possible that there was still hope? Going against every bit of common sense in my possession, I set my alarm for 4am, the time the phone lines opened at footaction.

4am the next morning
The alarm went off and I got up. I tried the website one more time to see if the order would go through.

It didn’t.

I looked warily at the phone number on my desk. Was it worth it? Should I really bother some guy at the beginning of his shift at 6am central time? Surely they had run out of stock by now. I decided to try anyway.

The phone rang. A voice spoke!

I was informed that to improve customer service my call would be monitored. I waited some more. And then…

Jeff answered. I was probably the first call of his day, but Jeff was polite and courteous. He checked the shoes I wanted and informed me that they WERE in stock and I could still get the sale price. Victory was mine. I should have 2 new pairs of good looking shoes within a week or two. I’ll post picks when their server comes back from the dead.

November 19, 2003

“Fox is considering a plan to resume production of Family Guy… …As many as 35 new episodes could return in January 2005, marking the first time that a canceled series has been revived based on strong DVD demand and ratings in syndication.”

later in the article:

“DVD and cable viewers have “created kind of a groundswell that could lead to better ratings” on Fox, Grushow says, although new episodes could end up going directly to Cartoon Network.”

November 18, 2003

I’m tired of it always being warm in Los Angeles. It’s repetitive and boring. I miss waking up and having to put on 9 layers of clothes, a beanie, slippers, and then light myself on fire just to get my body temperature above ninety degrees. In Los Angeles I never get caught in spontaneous rain shower, the temperature of coffee is never justified, and it’s never ever warm enough to wear jackets, which I look good in. Then there’s the pressure of always having to go out into the world because it’s never cold enough to say “Wow, look at that weather, I was going to go out, but I’d better stay inside and sip some hot chocolate with marshmallows instead.”

I’m not dreaming of a white christmas, but some frost on the windows might be nice.

Andrew related to me what happened when his nutrition teacher tried to talk smack about the nutritional value of eggs:

(19:16:15) Andrew: Background: she was dumping on eggs and last class said “egg whites contain most of the protein and nutrients.” So after last class I went up to her and asked for extra credit if I found the nutrition facts on egg whites and yolks. She said no, but obvioulsy I knew I was going to :own: her next class.

Fast forward to today: she comes into class first thing, and says “Now to finish up this egg issue.” She was clearly done with the egg issue last class, but to save her own ass from getting :Owned: by me, she did state that egg whites contain about 55% of the protein, which is true. So she obviously looked it up on her own since the last class to prevent getting embarassed by me.

So then she started rambling on about saturated fat, to which I replied by stating that each egg only contains 1.5g saturated fat. Then she rambled about cholesterol, to which I replied that the egg yolk has 1g lecithin, which helps to clear up arteries. She said it doesn’t counteract the effect of the cholesterol (but later admitted to me that it did). Then she said every egg has 280mg cholesterol, to which my friend asked is that HDL or LDL? She didn’t even directly respond, saying our body makes enough as it is (during the next break I told her that it’s mostly good cholesterol, but she said it’s mostly bad cholesterol…clarification?). Next she said to just eat egg whites because they have most of the nutrients. I then replied that the yolk contains virtually all of the folic acid, calcium, and iron which got a rise out of the class. She then replied that you could take a vitamin supplement for that (BUT SHE SAID THE WHITES HAD MOST OF THE NUTRIENTS).

So after about five straight minutes of her and I aruging in front of a big class, I had the class snickering and her cage was definitely rattled. She then kept on rambling about eggs for another five minutes, but refered to the yolk as the whites and the whites as the yolk for the duration of the discussion. I WAS IN HER HEAD!

Anyway, that’s all. My hope is that even if she didn’t admit to being wrong in front of the whole class, that maybe in the future she won’t spout off bullshit.

I was listening to an interview with ex-Cowboys and ex-Bruin quarterback Troy Aikman, and they mentioned that he used to be a fan of the Trojans when he was a kid, which makes sense, considering his name is Troy.

I was reading developer blogs at Planet Gnome when I saw a reference to a site called grouphug,[note – NOT PG, rated R for lanuage] which is kinda like a blogging site, except it’s completely anonymous, no usernames even, everyone’s just assigned a number. The idea being people can confess their deepest darkest sins to the world. Sorta get it off their chest.

This is a SCARY site. I can’t believe most of this stuff actually happens. Here’s my two favorite PG entries:

“I used to fantasize about my boyfriend dying so that I wouldn’t have to break up with him. ”
-user #545328455

“I’m the most outspoken person in the school band but don’t have enough balls to ask out a hot clarinet player”
-user #771920457

If you don’t understand why the last one is scary, well, there just aren’t that many hot clarinet players in the world.

November 15, 2003

14 miles to school, 14 miles back. That’s how far it is by bike, which is going to be my newest method of transportation to school. After commuting to school everyday AND sitting in my car for endless hours while delivering pizzas, I’m just plain SICK of my car. So I’m going to try to bike to school because:

1) I’m SICK of being in my car.
2) I’ll get some good exercise.
3) It’ll be fun to ride past cars stuck in traffic. I’ve been thinking of creating a t-shirt with a picture of me pointing and laughing on the back of it.

I got some new stuff for my bike to make my ride a little bit more pleasant. I even have before and after pics:
before

after.
Basically I got some new low profile slicks and a bike rack which my backpack is going to be attached to. My bike rolls much smoother now with the new tires, there’s a noticeable decrease in pedaling difficulty, so hopefully I’ll be able to make it the whole 28 miles. My Dad asked if I’d removed any of the rust that’s accumulated on the bike. Of course, that rust is perhaps the most effective anti-theft device in the history of thieves, so obviously the rust had to stay.

I have been working out this semester and really pushing myself on the exercise bike so hopefully I won’t crumble my first day out. We’ll see though, and I’ll keep you posted.

November 14, 2003

While changing channels on the television this morning, I ran into mtv. It was pretty cool, bands had taken their songs and made mini movies around the song. If they follow up on this, they could really make some money.

November 13, 2003

Yesterday the weather was absolutely crazy, as soon as it got dark it started pouring, not raining mind you but coming down in solid sheets, as if an ocean were suddenly dropped on the city of Los Angeles. Plus the thunder and lightning, which was of epic proportions, the kind of thunder and lightning I though ONLY existed in the movies. This was the kind of thunder and lightning that had all people of 12 years and younger wetting their beds simultaneously all across the City of Angels.

Then the power went out. What was I doing when the power went out? Luckily, we got a picture of me just before the power went in search of warmer and drier climates. I was studying for a Linear Algebra test, and I got cold, so i was drinking coffee and wearing Lauren’s beanie.

Even after the power went out I was still doing Linear Algebar hw by candelight. Only one candle was bright enough so I had to keep moving it back and forth between the page I was reading and the piece of paper I was writing on.